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The Technocratic Antarctic : An Ethnography of Scientific Expertise and Environmental Governance / Jessica O'Reilly.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Expertise: Cultures and Technologies of KnowledgePublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2017]Copyright date: ©2017Description: 1 online resource (224 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501708367
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 559.89072 23/eng/20231120
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Acronyms -- Introduction -- 1. The Imagined Antarctic -- 2. The Environmental History of the Antarctic -- 3. Sensing the Ice -- 4. Samples and Specimens at Antarctic Biosecurity Borders -- 5. Managing Antarctic Science in an Epistemic Technocracy -- 6. Tectonic Time and Sacred Geographies in the Larsemann Hills -- 7. Charismatic Data and Climate Change -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index
Summary: The Technocratic Antarctic is an ethnographic account of the scientists and policymakers who work on Antarctica. In a place with no indigenous people, Antarctic scientists and policymakers use expertise as their primary model of governance. Scientific research and policymaking are practices that inform each other, and the Antarctic environment—with its striking beauty, dramatic human and animal lives, and specter of global climate change—not only informs science and policy but also lends Antarctic environmentalism a particularly technocratic patina.Jessica O’Reilly conducted most of her research for this book in New Zealand, home of the "Antarctic Gateway" city of Christchurch, and on an expedition to Windless Bight, Antarctica, with the New Zealand Antarctic Program. O’Reilly also follows the journeys Antarctic scientists and policymakers take to temporarily "Antarctic" places such as science conferences, policy workshops, and the international Antarctic Treaty meetings in Scotland, Australia, and India. Competing claims of nationalism, scientific disciplines, field experiences, and personal relationships among Antarctic environmental managers disrupt the idea of a utopian epistemic community. O’Reilly focuses on what emerges in Antarctica among the complicated and hybrid forms of science, sociality, politics, and national membership found there. The Technocratic Antarctic unfolds the historical, political, and moral contexts that shape experiences of and decisions about the Antarctic environment.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Acronyms -- Introduction -- 1. The Imagined Antarctic -- 2. The Environmental History of the Antarctic -- 3. Sensing the Ice -- 4. Samples and Specimens at Antarctic Biosecurity Borders -- 5. Managing Antarctic Science in an Epistemic Technocracy -- 6. Tectonic Time and Sacred Geographies in the Larsemann Hills -- 7. Charismatic Data and Climate Change -- Conclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index

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http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

The Technocratic Antarctic is an ethnographic account of the scientists and policymakers who work on Antarctica. In a place with no indigenous people, Antarctic scientists and policymakers use expertise as their primary model of governance. Scientific research and policymaking are practices that inform each other, and the Antarctic environment—with its striking beauty, dramatic human and animal lives, and specter of global climate change—not only informs science and policy but also lends Antarctic environmentalism a particularly technocratic patina.Jessica O’Reilly conducted most of her research for this book in New Zealand, home of the "Antarctic Gateway" city of Christchurch, and on an expedition to Windless Bight, Antarctica, with the New Zealand Antarctic Program. O’Reilly also follows the journeys Antarctic scientists and policymakers take to temporarily "Antarctic" places such as science conferences, policy workshops, and the international Antarctic Treaty meetings in Scotland, Australia, and India. Competing claims of nationalism, scientific disciplines, field experiences, and personal relationships among Antarctic environmental managers disrupt the idea of a utopian epistemic community. O’Reilly focuses on what emerges in Antarctica among the complicated and hybrid forms of science, sociality, politics, and national membership found there. The Technocratic Antarctic unfolds the historical, political, and moral contexts that shape experiences of and decisions about the Antarctic environment.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Apr 2024)